This invention relates to a golf club head and a manufacturing method thereof, and in particular to a surface treatment thereof.
In general, golf club heads and particularly iron heads are electroplated directly with chromium, or are electroplated firstly with nickel and then with chromium. For this reason, the club heads are silvery in their surface color.
However, in recent years, the silver color of the club heads does not occasionally satisfy the chromatic needs of the golf club purchasers or users who regard the color of purchasing articles as important from the viewpoint of the motivation of purchase or use. Therefore, as shown and described in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application No. 1-73353 filed on Jun. 21, 1989, a golf club head of golden surface color was developed. However, this golden color is obtained by using electrolytic nickel-boron plating.
However, the golf club heads of non-electrolytic nickel-boron boron plating are oxidized and discolored on their surfaces if they remain exposed to the atmosphere. This is a disadvantage of the golf club heads which have non-electrolytic nickel-boron plating applied to them.
Usually, the conventional golf club heads are die-stamped with marks for improvement in their design value or for the identification of the club types. In this case, the plating has difficulty in adhering around such die-stamped marks or to their edge portions and to the edge portions of the face lines, and both of these edge portions tend to corrode easily.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide for a golf club head and a manufacturing method thereof in which the surface thereof is plated so as to have a color other than silver, for example, gold in particular, and remains undiscolored even after exposure to the atmosphere and also in which the peripheral edge portions of the die-stamped marks are superior in their resistance to corrosion.